TEAM 3061

Build Season: Week 1

Huskie Robotics has had a fantastic first week of the build season! We are off the best start ever and have made more progress in this first week than in any other year! The students wouldn’t be able to do this without the incredible support from our sponsors who are funding this year’s competition, our mentors who volunteer their time to guide our students, and the parents who support their kids and volunteer to bring snacks to keep everyone fed!

On Saturday, January 7th, the team learned of this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition game: Rebound Rumble! For details, check the FRC YouTube channel. After learning about this year’s game and retrieving our Kit of Parts, we returned to Naperville North High School and brainstormed on our game strategy. By the end of Saturday, we had reached consensus, at a high level, on how our robot should play the game.

On Monday, we broke into teams to focus on different aspects of the robot. Each team started enumerating requirements against which we could rank design options. Teams also started brainstorming on potential designs. We checked our Kit of Parts to make sure nothing was missing.

On Wednesday, teams continued to refine requirements and elaborate designs. In addition, some teams started building proof-of-concept devices (play the above video of the ball launcher). The programming team finished updating all of the laptops with the latest software, upgraded the controller, and was able to control motors.

On Thursday, while most teams had narrowed the list of potential designs to a couple, we took a break to step back, think outside the box, and try to think of very different and creative solutions. Teams continued to construct prototypes and elaborate designs. We ordered our first parts for the ball launcher.